The first in a series of planned ‘roadshows’ organised by Subsea Industries has been held in Maassluis, Netherlands to demonstrate the simplicity of cleaning hulls protected with Ecospeed hard coating.
Subsea Industries’ maintenance and dive support vessel was used to demonstrate to attendees how vessels coated with Ecospeed can be cleaned effortlessly and legally in harbours, with zero environmental impact.
As divers set about cleaning the 22.7m catamaran’s hull, which had been coated with Ecospeed some eight years ago, it was reported that the surrounding water remained clean with only fouling being washed off the vessel. There was no paint loss or toxic plumes emitted to otherwise contaminate marine life and sediments.
Using specially-designed tools and equipment, divers from the underwater hull cleaning specialist Hydrex cleaned the vessel in just two hours. However, a typical VLCC would take a dive team about 12 hours at a cleaning rate of 2000m2 per hour.
Subsea Industries’ Executive Director Boud Van Rompay explained: “With Ecospeed there is no need to reblast and recoat the hull; there is no chance of corrosion, no impact on the environment and, if regular hull cleaning is carried out, fuel savings of up to 40% can be achieved.
Willem Hopmans, Subsea Industries’ Marine Project Officer, said: “We all have an environmental interest in what is happening in the water but we can clean Ecospeed hulls in water very quickly and without damage to the marine environment. Ecospeed is the only sustainable solution for protecting ships’ hulls and we will now take the vessel to ports around Europe to demonstrate just how safe the coating is and how simple and cost-effective it is to clean.”
Shipowners, shipbuilders and representatives from the Green Award Foundation were in attendance at the inaugural roadshow event.
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